From House to the High Seas – Hugh Laurie to be Blackbeard for NBC

Many Americans know Hugh Laurie as the grumpy Dr. House in the hit show that ran for the better part of a decade. But now the actor is going to be allowed to return to his roots, and his original accent, by playing a new part for a show on NBC.

And it sounds awesome. The show is “Crossbones,” a pirate drama where Laurie will be playing the famed pirate Blackbeard. When an assassin is sent to kill him, he slowly gets drawn into Blackbeard’s charismatic web, and the show is based on the book Republic of Pirates.

The hard part will be shaking the House off of him. When an actor has been in a prominent role like that for so long, it can be hard to leave behind. Also, NBC hasn’t exactly been shining with their dramas lately, and even their hits (Revolution) have been pretty bad. Hopefully Blackbeard is an exception to the rule.

Pirates don’t seem to be as trendy as they once were back when Captain Jack Sparrow was everywhere, but perhaps this is a good thing that it doesn’t feel like bandwagon jumping this far after the trend. And I’m not sure why it took this long for a network to develop a pirate show either. Bad or good, I’m looking forward to seeing how this turns out.